Consolidation therapy with autologous stem cell transplantation in plasma cell leukemia after VAD, high-dose cyclophosphamide and EDAP courses: a report of three cases and a review of the literature

Plasma cell leukemia (PCL) is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by a malignant proliferation of plasma cells in blood and bone marrow. Treatment of primary PCL has been mostly disappointing. Three patients with primary PCL are described who received high-dose melphalan with autologous PBSC support after vincristine, doxorubicine and dexamethasone (VAD), high-dose cyclophosphamide, and etoposide, cisplatinum, dexamethasone and cytosine arabinoside (EDAP) courses. All patients were in CR post-transplantation. One patient relapsed after 3 months; the other patients are still in CR, after 14 and 26 months, respectively. These results in conjunction with data from the literature suggest that intensive chemotherapy for PCL is promising.